Does anyone know what the factory specification is for the length of the filler tube on a Parker Vacumatic and a Parker 51 Vac??? It would be nice to be able to cut the new filler tubes to the right length first time instead of playing around.

I have taken apart Vacs that had all kinds of different length filler tubes ranging from almost touching the filler unit to about 1/2" (which is way too short IMO)

"What I do", which with some of my other 'repairs' might make one wonder if it is correct, is measure the distance to the fully depressed filler from the barrel end, calculate from there and leave about an eighth of an inch for good measure. The actual barrel length on the pens may have determined factry tube length.

At some time I plan on making complete drawings of the "51's". They will include thread sizes of the various threaded pieces, tube clearances and holes, dimensions of the fillers and pellet pockets, drawings of the collectors and the rest of the information needed to build or rebuild a "51".

If I ever get to the point where I want to build an actual 51 or parts on a CNC lathe, it will serve as a starting point for that. Until then, it will just be a handy thing to have when a pellet pocket, tube or such needs to be replaced.

I think there are four basic 51's, standard Vacumatics, short Vacumatics (Demi), Aeromatics in standard and slender. I'm wondering how many different aeromatic units there were.

Ron

I've never seen anything in any of the Parker repair manuals that mention this. It may have been a supplied part that dealers would buy.